1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to winemaking methods and apparatus, and more specifically to an improved method and apparatus for reconditioning wood wine barrels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fine wines are traditionally aged in oak barrels. The oak is integral to aging and imparting certain flavors to the wines. Wine fermenting and aging in wood barrels extracts flavor components from the wood and leaves a residue of precipitated materials such as tartrates, finning agents or yeast. Wine processing often leaves undesirable bacterial infections in the barrels for which there is no current remedy.
Wine penetrates into a solid barrel stave approximately 3/16 inch. Even over a period of many years, exchange occurs through this depth. Over time, all components which can be extracted from the oak will be, and the residue left in the wood can begin to sour or block the membrane exchange ability of the wood. The barrel is then considered exhausted and is viewed either as a liability because of contamination, or as neutral storage for additional vintages.
The current methods of barrel shaving use bottom cutting routers or rotating wire brushes. These methods, though widely used, are unsuitable for making barrel environments to properly age premium wines. Although inadequate, however, these services remain in business because they are able to remove a small amount of the barrel's inner surface for a very modest fee. Both routers and brushes suffer the same failure. They remove material in a direction perpendicular to the grain of the barrel staves. This shreds the barrel surface and then must be sanded off. The sanding actually causes greater deterioration to the barrel surface because it grinds the exhausted wood into the pores of the newly exposed wood. When this barrel is retoasted, very undesirable "off" flavors are baked into the new surface. Additionally, these processes do not remove enough wood to expose truly new wood, uncontaminated by previous wine.